Dust Networks on connecting the physical world to information systems

One of the byproducts of RFID is a renewed interest in sensors and sensor networks, especially wireless ones that slash costs.

By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 5/21/2007

Everything old is new again.

While that phrase usually refers to kids wearing their parents’ old bell bottoms and mini-skirts, it also applies to technology. Wal-Mart, after all, breathed new life into RFID, a technology that until recently had limited applications in distribution even though it’s been around for decades.

And one of the byproducts of the interest in RFID has been a renewed interest in sensors, another technology that has been around for half a century, says Robert Shear, director of market development for Dust Networks, a provider of embedded wireless sensor networking products.

RFID and sensor synergy
“Over the last few years, there has been a convergence of awareness and technologies thanks to RFID,” says Shear. “They are dramatically different technologies, but they complement one another. The interest in RFID has raised the awareness of sensors.”

Add to that interest, new technologies are making sensors easier and cheaper to implement and operate. “It’s the right time and the right place for sensor networking,” says Shear.

The two are different. RFID uses radio technology to broadcast identifying information about whatever the RFID tag is attached to. Sensors, on the other hand, capture information about the physical environment surrounding that product. That data can include temperature, lighting conditions, humidity, energy consumption, and movement. 

Working together, an RFID tag can identify and track the location of a specific product. Meanwhile, a sensor can tell you whether the temperature in that location is above or below a required threshold or whether the conditions are too humid or too dry for the safe storage of that product.

Sensors going wireless
“What you’re trying to do with sensors is connect the physical world to information systems,” says Shear. “What’s held sensors back in the past has not been the information systems. There are plenty of databases capable of handling tons of information. What’s been missing is a way to easily and economically connect them.”

In the past, Shear adds, you could buy a temperature sensor relatively cheaply to monitor a manufacturing process. But, it might cost $1,000 to wire that sensor. That’s where a wireless sensor comes into play.

In addition to sensing capability, these devices include radio capability and a network manager on a chip that enables low-power, wireless communication to an IT system over an existing WiFi infrastructure. Eliminate the need for expensive wiring, and implementing sensors throughout a manufacturing plant, for instance, becomes more economical.

The marriage of RFID and wireless sensors is still in the courtship stage, says Shear. “But wireless technologies are bringing the economics of these solutions into reach.”